The Demigod Alchemist
by MoonDance29
Summary: Natalie has lived her whole life with her mother, Scathach, but when her mom has to go away on important business, Natalie is sent to Camp Half-Blood, courtesy of her father, Hades. What will happen? Who the Hades knows.
1. Chapter 1

**TA-DA! Yeah, Imma geek. Don't hate on the geek though! ENJOYY!**

"What? But mother-" I started.

"No butts. You've spent too much time studying alchemy with me, you need to spend some in your father's world. You're going tomorrow."

"But you can't do this to me! I may have forever, but I don't want to spend it at some lame school with dyslexic ADHD kids! _Please_, let me stay with you mom."

Let me explain what's going on…

_Sixteen years ago, I had been born. My mother is the infamous Scathach, who was more than two thousand years old, the founder or karate, and a vampire. My father I had never known, but I knew the name; Hades, the lord of the dead, a non-alchemist, and a known person in Greek mythology._

_How my parents ended up together, I don't know, but they didn't stay together very long either – in fact, they separated just after I was born. I guess my dad didn't like the idea of having a vampire/alchemist/immortal daughter._

_My mother, Scathach, had taught me alchemy starting at a very young age. I was nowhere near as good as she was, but I could successfully contact ghosts, create golems, and form a spell without obliterating anything. Oh, and I could also see auras bright and clear like a lighthouse. My own aura was pure light – one of the rarest of all auras. By pure light I mean no color at all, just like a light bulb shining._

_On the rare occasion I had gotten to come along to see Nicholas Flammel and his wife Perry Flammel, who were top notch alchemists. Perry herself was a genius. She was by far one of the most powerful women I knew._

_Let me describe myself – long blond hair that shone red when I was mad, pale skin, my mother's too prominent cheekbones and chin, rosy red lips, and the weirdest of all; I had one emerald green eye, and one dark gray eye. My mom said it was a combination of her and my dad, and also that I was lucky that I didn't end up like other demigods. Apparently normal demigods were dyslexic and ADHD, and constantly pursued by monsters of sort. I guess I could be called lucky that I had never encountered a monster in my life._

_I had learned karate, and was the equivalent of a ninja. I knew complicated series of punches that could knock a person dead in two second flat. My weapons; two double-sided curved swords. Both were half iron, half celestial bronze._

_My mother and I constantly fought. Our current fight was her wanting me to go to some freak school in New York – which was on the other side of the country (I live in California) – and wouldn't take no as an answer._

"Why?" I breathed. My hair was starting to grow red at the tips, and even though REAL vampires have no emotion, I felt angry for once.

"Because. You've spent sixteen years with me–your whole life –and your physical growing has stopped. You've matured more than any one of those demigods have, but there's some business I need to attend to."

"But why can't I come _with_ you on this business? I don't want to go to some random fighting camp! I could just stay here, alone, even. Please!"

"I'm sorry, Natalie. But you're going. End of conversation."

I stomped off to my room in the back corner of my mom's mini-dojo in San Francisco and slammed the door shut, rattling the door frame. My open duffel bag sat on my bad with wrinkled clothes scattered all around it. I stuffed a dozen random pairs of destroyed skinny jeans in to the bag, a couple off tee shirts, a few tank tops, my Stanford sweater, a pair of high-top black Converse, black flip flops, and my all-white yoga clothes. I threw my toothbrush, a hairbrush, and a few other essentials in before zipping my bloated duffel bag closed, then collapsed on my bed and cried.

I bit down on my lip with my razor-sharp fangs to keep from crying out loud. I lit a small black flame in my hand and blankly stared at it. No stinking demigod would understand me, or what I did. No one would ever understand. I almost considered burning my plane ticket at that moment, but that would be letting my mom down.

I left for the plane an hour later, and arrived alone in New York eight hours later, at 6 A.M. in the morning.

I spent the day wandering around New York aimlessly, and then set out for Long Island an hour before midnight. I took a taxi to the base of the hill where I paid the taxi driver, who drove away with a confused look on his face. Duffel bag in hand, I walked up the hill to observe the camp.

First thing I noticed: A tall pine tree with a golden blanked draped over a low branch with a small dragon coiled around the base of the tree. I lightly patted him on the head, and he nuzzled into my hand. Second thing I noticed: the camp was fairly big – there was a strawberry patch, _two_ rock-climbing walls, and about fifty cabins each styled differently scattered closely to the ocean in the back.

I tugged nervously on my waist-length braid. Next thing I knew, there was some random uber-buff girl standing in front of me.

"Hey, are you lost?" she asked me. Her voice was gruff, and a little scary.

"No."

"Well then… why are you up here?"

"Because my mother sent me here to be with a bunch of kleptomaniac demigods. Is that good enough for you?"

She grabbed me by the back of my shirt and dragged me down towards a sky blue building that stood at least four stories tall. "Rule one, _never_ insult a daughter of Ares," she growled menacingly.

"Or what?"

"Or you get the newbies treatment."

I twisted around and punched her in the lower gut, chest, and right above her right hip. She fell backwards, paralyzed for the moment.

"Yeah? Well guess what? If you mess with _me_ then you end up hurt. Got it?"

She nodded her head rapidly, obviously freaked out that she couldn't move. I pressed a spot on her left shoulder, and she sprung up, suddenly able to move.

"How'd you do that?" she asked, flexing her hands.

"I'm an expert in tae kwon do. So where were you taking me again?"'Oh yeah, to the Big House."I followed behind her the rest of the way to the "Big House". If you think about it, someone wasn't very creative with their naming.

We walked inside to find to men playing a card game I _believe_ is Pinochle. One was small and pudgy with purple-y black hair, and the other was a centaur. They looked up at me from the game and stared.

"Who is this, Clarisse?"

She scratched her head sheepishly. "Someone I found on top of the hill. I never actually caught her name…"

"My name is Natalie."

"Do you have a last name?"

Now that I think about it, I didn't have a last name. "Uh… no. I have no last name."

They all gave me weird looks.

_Well I'm sorry, but they didn't have last names when my mother or even grandmother was born,_ I thought.

"What? Do you, Dionysus, or you, Chiron, have last names?"

"Wait, you know who we are?"

"Well I had to guess that you were who you are counting on your appearances. Plus, Chiron, in Greek mythology, weren't you the _only_ centaur who had any interest in being um… smart?"

He stared blankly at me. "How do you know that?"

"Books. Lots and lots of books about mythology."

"But demigods are dyslexic… how could you read?"

I shrugged. "I'm not a normal demigods – I'll say that much. I'm not dyslexic _or_ ADHD, but I have other things that demigods probably don't."

"Like?"

"Never mind."

"Well, seeing as you know so much about the world of demigods, monsters, and gods, then have you already been claimed?"

"No."

"Do you know who your parent is?"

"Yes."

"Care to tell me who?"

"No. He's a jerk that shunned me my whole life."

Chiron facepalmed. "Most all demigods have that feeling at one point or another about their godly parent. It's normal. But we need somewhere to place you, so can you _please_ tell me who your godly parent is?"

I sighed. "Fine. My father is Hades."

Clarisse, Chiron, and Dionysus gasped. "But the big three haven't had any children other then Nico, Percy, and Thalia! Are you sure?"

"Yes. My mother told me exactly who he was."

He looked quite shocked. "How long have you known?"

I thought about that one for a minute. "As long as I can remember. My mom always told me what a heartless jerk he was and all that."

"Well that would be very… _honest_ about his true nature." Out of boredom, I naturally started conjuring little balls of fire in my hand.

"How are you doing that?" Dionysus suddenly asked.

I extinguished the fire. "Doing what?"

"The fire in your hand."

"Oh, uh…" Great, how do I get myself out of this one? "Magic?"

**I will continue this another time, I've already gone over how much I normally write. So, whataya think?**


	2. Chapter 2

"Magic, huh? Sounds a little fishy to me," Dionysus said.

"Nah, that's just me," a boy with ruffled black hair said. He had sea green eyes and a mischievous look on his face, a bronze sword in his hand.

"Johnson, you're on patrol tonight?"

The boy wrinkled his face. "It's _Jackson_, Mr. D. Who's this?"

I twirled the ring on my finger. It was thick and golden, with a small rounded fragment of the Philosopher's stone in the middle, otherwise known as the Sorcerer's stone. It channeled my alchemy, making each spell twenty times stronger. Some people would use it to achieve immortality, but being a vampire and all, I was already immortal.

"This is Natalie, daughter of Hades, or so she says."

_Or so she says_? What was that supposed to mean?

My hair started turning red at the tips, blood pulsing in my cheeks. "I _am_ a daughter of Hades. I could call my mother here to prove it, if I must. But let me warn you; she has quite the nasty temper. She wouldn't like having to fly across the country just to vouch for her daughter. I suggest you believe me on this one."

They all stared at me. Crud. I had obviously inherited my mom's Irish accent that became extremely pronounced when I was mad.

On cue, a shady form of a skull appeared over my head.

"Well, that settles it. She's the daughter of Hades," Chiron said. Geez, _now_ they believe me.

"Told ya so."

Dionysus scoffed along with Chiron, while Clarisse and the fish boy just grinned. These people really were freaks. I hated to consider myself even _partly_ related to them.

Dionysus stared at me.

_Don't tell me that you can read my thoughts._

He smiled grimly. Aw crud… nothing was safe anymore.

_If you say even as much as a single word about my personal life, I _swear_ I will rip your godly head off and leave it to the crow goddess to dispose of. Got it?_

He nodded and went back to his card game. For a moment, I saw a trace of fear in his eyes. He knew what I was capable of, and wouldn't risk the possibility that I would actually kill him. He knew that I knew that there were bigger things then the Greek gods. He knew that the Greek world was just a tiny blip in the world of alchemy.

I smiled smugly at him. "So, where do I stay?"

The fish boy came forward. "I can lead you to your cabin. You'll be sharing it with your half-brother, Nico DiAngelo." I winced at the thought of having to share a room with someone.

"Thanks. I didn't quite catch your name."

"Percy. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

So he really was a fish.

Dionysus laughed at my thought. I shot him a look to kill, and he turned back to his game yet again.

"Let's get going. The quicker I get through this summer, the quicker I can go back home."

He rubbed the back of his head. "Never heard it put that way before, but to every person themselves, I guess… follow me."

He took me down the hill to a small black cabin with skulls, bones, and lots of green fire around it. I stared at the green fire intently.

"It's Greek fire, and it's highly dangerous." I scooped the fire up in my right hand and stared at it. He gasped. "How can you do that?"

"My mother always said to play with fire."

"Why?"

"It builds character."

I opened the door and stepped inside to see three bunk beds lining the wall, and everything in the room was either gray, black, or emerald green. Percy held a finger to his lips, signaling for me to be quiet. Sure enough, a small ghost-pale boy with long shaggy black hair was snoring away on the bottom bunk in the furthest bed.

I thanked Percy and closed the door behind him. The room was bigger, if you turned your head forty-five degrees to the left, and squinted your eyes really hard.

I threw my duffel bag onto the nearest bunk bed and changed into my purple boxer shorts and a plain white tank top, then hopped into the top bunk and fell asleep.

_Oh god, I'm really here, aren't I?_

Sunlight shone in through the window, bathing me in its golden rays. I rubbed my eyes mindlessly as the previous day's events flowed back to me.

_Camp Half-Blood._

Ugh… trapped in a stupid camp for who-knows-long. I sat up and looked around.

The first thing I saw was… a thirteen-year old boy standing butt naked with dripping wet hair, brushing his teeth and humming a strange little tune in the middle of the room.

My jaw dropped.

_Oh my – He's naked! Someone shoot me please…_

I covered my eyes. "Put some clothes on!" I yelped in fright.

"AAAUUUGHHHH! Who are you and why are you in my cabin?"

"I'll answer that once I know you have clothes on."

Rustling noises came from the corner of the room, then silence for a minute. "Okay, I have clothes on. Now tell me who you are and exactly why you're in my cabin."

I uncovered my eyes to see him wearing black skinny jeans and a black tee shirt with a skull on it.

"My name is Natalie and I'm your half-sister. I got here late last night. Happy?"

His jaw dropped and his eyes raked me over, visibly slowing when he saw my eyes. I sighed. The eyes always stopped everyone. I tried to ignore him looking over the rest of me.

"You sure you're a daughter of Hades? You don't really look like one…"

"What? I can't be blond? I have to be goth like you?"

He blushed. "Sorry… may I ask why you don't have a trace of mortal blood in you?"

Mortal? That's what they called the humani? Weird. I smiled. "Does a lady have to be humani to gain Hades's affection?"

"What's a humani?"

"What you would call a 'mortal'. My kind calls them humani."

"Your kind? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means _my kind_. What did you think it meant?"

"Sorry. Can you _please_ tell me what you are though?"

Well, he is my half brother, and I have to live with him… so I may as well. "I'm a vampire, and a alchemist." I smiled, revealing my fangs.

He passed out. I hopped over the side of my bed to examine him. He made odd gurgling noises and his eye twitched.

_So tempting to take his emotions… But I can't. It would be wrong._

I pressed my hands on either side of his face and muttered an spell to heal him. My ring glowed momentarily, and he woke up. He stood up shakily. When he was standing straight up, I noticed that I was shorter than him. Dang it! Why did I have to stop growing at 4'11"?

"You're kidding, right?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not kidding.

"So… I'm staying in a cabin with a vampire?"

I chuckled. "Yup. And you're really lucky that I didn't just drain you right now."

He hunched his neck down. "You drink blood?"

I laughed again. "No. Only the very lowest forms of vampires drink blood, but that's because they haven't figured out how to _really_ eat. _Real_ vampires survive off emotions from their victims. Or correction; _victim_ is the wrong word. It's more like a volunteer. When a vampire drains their volunteer, it doesn't hurt them or cause any discomfort in any way. I can show you, if you want."

He held out a hand hesitantly, which I clasped in between my own.

Many emotions flowed like a river into me. _Fear, wonder, awe, surprise, curiosity, stress, shock, embarrassment, happiness, sadness, drowsiness…_ and that's when I stopped.

The worry lines on his face had disappeared into serenity. I had drained him just enough to relieve him of some stress.

"That was weird." His words slurred slightly, but he seemed content.

I smiled. "Isn't it?"

He looked me up and down again. "You should probably put some clothes on. If any of the boys here see you like that… they might start drooling."

If I was a normal person, I would have blushed. But I didn't. I just shrugged. "I don't really care what they think. People can go to breakfast in their pajamas, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, they do that all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if more than three-quarters of the people at breakfast this morning were in their pajamas. You _should_ be fine…" he scratched his head mindlessly.

"Good, I don't want to change this early. I'm going to do some yoga this morning after breakfast, if you want to join me."

"That's okay, me and yoga don't work that well. But thanks for the offer. Oh, by the way, you have to sacrifice a portion of your breakfast into the fire to the gods."

I shrugged. "I'll just throw in whatever part of it that's meat."

"You're a vegetarian?"

"Yup."

He finished brushing his teeth, and I threw on my dirty high-top Converse, then we went out to breakfast.

Now that it was the morning, I could see everything clearly. The design of the buildings, the layout of the land, and the ogling boys. Nico was right; they _did_ stare, although it was probably more out of shock that an unknown girl was coming out of Nico's cabin. That thought was embarrassing. Nico passed me his Green Day hoodie, which I gladly accepted.

"Thanks."

"No problem. We are family now, after all."

"Yeah… I guess so. Oh, and Nico, don't tell anyone what I told you, please."

He nodded. "Sure. I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you, again."

Percy and a blond girl ran over to us. "Hey Nico and Natalie. Natalie, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth. Her mom is—"

"Athena," I finished. She had the same look as her mother, who on the rare occasion my mom had sent me to get tutored by.

"How'd you know that?" she asked.

"Your mom tutored me when I wasn't in the range of a school."

Their eyes widened. "Athena… tutored you?"

I nodded. "Don't ask. My life is complicated."

They laughed. "Aren't all of ours."

I shook my head. "You actually wouldn't understand this one…"

Percy smirked. "Like you wouldn't understand how to control water?"

That confused me. Not all demigods could control water? The look on my face must have set them back. "What are you confused about?"

"Not all demigods have unlimited powers? I thought they would…"

Percy and Annabeth stopped in their tracks. "And _you_ can?"

Crud. I shook my head. "Nope. Just making assumptions," I said quickly, perhaps _too_ quickly.

"Okay, then," Percy said.

The breakfast pavilion was pretty big. About fifty tables were scattered randomly all across the marble stones, with one big table at the head. Just like Nico said, half of the people here were in their pajamas. What really freaked me out is that some of the geekier people were wearing… Pokémon pajamas. Oh, the horrors!

Two boys that looked pretty much like twins hopped up in front of me. They both had the same upturned eyebrows and thin pointed nose, and evil grin. "Hey, I'm Travis Stoll," the taller one started.

"And I'm Connor Stoll," the shorter one said. "Are you new here? Because we haven't seen you around here."

"Yeah, I'm new. I'm Nico's half-sister."

Their eyebrows disappeared into their hairline. "Seriously?"

I nodded. "Yup. And may I ask who your godly parent is? By the looks of it, I'd guess Hermes."

Their shocked looks deepened. "How do you know what our dad looks like?"

"He delivers the mail to my house. Duh." Now they just looked overall confused.

Wow, he didn't deliver mail to all demigods and their families? How weird.

They continued to stare at me as I joined Nico at the Hades cabin table.

Nymphs brought platters of food around to every table, and in turn each cabin got up separately to throw some of their food into the fire. When it was mine and Nico's turn, I could feel eyes staring into my back, and whispering around me.

I pushed my bacon into the fire and muttered, "_To Hades._" The fire blazed an angry shade of black for a moment, before returning to normal.

"He really doesn't like you," a small girl in a brown dress said.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, lady Hestia," I said.

She grinned at me. "Of course, the young alchemist would know who I am."

Thankfully, no one heard her, except for Chiron. "Shh, I don't really want to share that!"

"I know, that's why I said it out loud."

I facepalmed, and returned to my table to eat my breakfast of Rice Krispies.

"We welcome one new camper today," Chiron said, his voice quivering slightly. He pointed a hand at me and I smiled. I could see Clarisse sitting with a bunch of buff kids that were loudly belching. Gross.

"Yes, miss Natalie. Daughter of the dead," Dionysus said dully.

"Watch it, drunker," I said, my hair flaring red. _Don't get on my bad side_, I added.

"Sorry," he said, slightly blushing. He ducked behind his can of Diet Coke, and a kid with curly blond hair stood up, looking slightly mad.

"Hey!" he started. "Don't talk to my dad that way!"

I quietly got up and walked over to him and pressed a hand to his arm, draining he madness out of him. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Calming you down. Too much anger can give you a heart attack."

"How…?" he asked.

"Magic." Lately, that seemed to be the answer to everything.

**Well, another **_**long**_** chapter. Thanks Apolloboy126 for reviewing!**


	3. Chapter 3

The boy looked up at me with wide, deep purple eyes. "Who are you?"

I smiled slightly. "I'm just another person that you shouldn't worry about." I patted him lightly on the top of his curly blond head and returned to my glum table, ignoring the stares of the demigods around me. I looked warily at my bowl of cereal and pushed it away. The upside of being a half-vampire was that you didn't have to eat if you didn't want to, and you could actually sleep. A full-fledged vampire didn't have to eat at all, and they also needed no sleep.

"You really have a way of sticking out," Nico commented.

"And you don't?" I asked, waving a hand at his all black attire.

"Touché. But may I suggest that you possibly tone down the act a bit? You know, maybe not mention any gods and their personal services to you? None of us even get to see out parents on a regular basis, and some have never met them at all."

"Ah, so that explains things a bit. I was wondering why Annabeth looked so shocked when I said Athena tutored me, and Connor and Travis looked so freaked out when I said that Hermes delivers the mail to my house." I started to get up from the table. "I'm going to do yoga now. Do you want to come with me?"

He shook his head. "No, that's okay. I'm not the yoga type of person."

"Okay. Then maybe I'll practice some tae kwon do instead if I don't have to slow down…"

I walked barefoot through the dewy grass back up to my cabin to change into something easier to move in and possibly a bit more conservative. In the bright morning light, I could see the cabin clearly. The walls were a very dark green, and would appear black to any normal humani, but my awakened senses could see things differently.

When I had had my powers awakened at the age five, I had first been taught the power of fire by Prometheus. That element had been completely mastered in one month. Two months after that, Gilgamesh taught me the water element. I had more trouble with that element then necessary since I wasn't the fondest of water. I kept getting wet. It took me four months to get that one mastered. My mother, Scathach, had taken me to see the Witch of Endor to be taught the air element when I was seven. Under strict teaching from her, I had mastered the art of air in less than two months. Then, I was brought to Gandhi to be taught the last natural element—Earth. I was most skilled in this element, and it barely took me a month to learn it. The last element—the only unnatural element—magic, I had learned only a year ago. Now let me tell you one thing, controlling magic is very hard, and to any normal person it could be deadly. I had begged my mother to let me learn that one, and only after much persuasion she had taken me to Hekate to learn the mystery of magic. It took me six months to learn how to use my magic without obliterating something. Only one month ago had I completely mastered magic.

I had all elements mastered, leaving me as one of the most powerful sorceresses in all the shadowrealms.

As I stared myself in the mirror in the small bathroom linking off of the cabin I thought of all these things.

My one grass green eye one onyx eye seemed duller than normal. Even my shining aura of pure light seemed faded, which only happened when I was very wary or very upset. In this case, I was both.

I changed into cargo shorts, a black V-neck shirt, and a pair of black high-tops and pulled my hair into a high ponytail. Simple combat wear. I strung my intricately carved nunchaku through a belt loop, and sheathed my two Japanese swords at my side.

I purged a little bit of magic into my aura to make it brighter than its already blinding shade, and the scent of fresh rose blossoms filled the room. The scent of my aura.

"Well Natalie, if you can't leave then you may as well make the best of this situation," I told myself before heading out to the forest to begin my personal daily training.

_*Hades's Point of View*_

I sighed. After sixteen years of staying with her mother, Natalie had finally gone to camp Half-Blood. Scathach had avoided all things that had to do with me, which included keeping Natalie from going to camp Half-Blood, but that didn't mean I didn't care about Natalie. No, quite the opposite. I always had someone, or _something_ keeping an eye on Natalie, but the majority of those things couldn't enter the boundaries of the camp.

"Charon," I called.

"Yes?" He asked, appearing in front of me. He wore his typical uniform; a silk sapphire blue Italian suit, hot pink dress shirt, a tie the same color as his suit, and Prada leather shoes.

"I need something or someone that can get inside the boundaries of camp to watch Natalie. I don't trust her with most of those demigods—"

"Sir, have you considered the possiblility of having someone watch over her from right under her nose?"

"What?"

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his chocolate-colored nose. "I'm saying that all of the demons that work for me can take shape as something, mostly animals."

I scratched my chin thoughtfully. "Yes, that could work. Do you have a certain demon in mind?"

"Actually sir, I do. Although he is currently under a contract with someone—"

"Call him in," I interrupted. "I want this demon watching over Natalie."

"Yes, sir." He clapped his hands together twice. "Come, Sebastian."

The air stirred in front of him, and a tall man appeared in front of me. His hair was raven black, skin white as snow, and eyes as red as a ruby.

"You called?" he asked, in a smooth voice hinted with a British accent.

"Yes. I'm telling you to watch over my daughter."

He bowed deeply. "Yes, my lord."

"I wasn't done," I said. "I want you to stay in your animal form—wait, what animal's form do you take."

"A cat."

I nodded. "Yes, a cat. I'm going to give you to her as a present, and I need you to watch over her and keep her safe under all means. Try not to let her know that you're not a cat."

He smiled. "Yes, my lord."

_*Natalie's Point of View*_

As I walked towards the forest, I noticed something walking up the hill towards the boundary line… something that looked very familiar.

"Tori! Victoire!" I called, running towards the hill at top speed.

"Natalie!" they squealed, running towards me.

"Wait," I said, remembering that they probably couldn't cross the boundary line. "I need to give you permission to enter."

"Natalie, we need permission to enter rooms. Not cross a hill!"

"No, it's the camp… they have a boundary line that you need permission to cross. So, I Natalie give you, Tori and Victoire permission to enter camp."

They rolled their eyes and stepped forward to tightly hug me. "Oh my gosh, I missed you guys so much! What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Your mom sent us! She said that you'd probably try to kill yourself if you were alone here for more than a day… and we just couldn't let that happen," Tori said.

Let me give you a breakdown; Tori and Victoire are my best friends _ever_. They're like sisters to me.

Tori has spiky platinum hair with teal streaks in it, skin as pale as a sheet of paper, and orb-like sky blue eyes. Today she was wearing a white tank top with a red tank top layered on top, multi-colored jelly bracelets running all up her arms, hot pink and teal plaid skinny jeans and black combat boots. It's a typical punky outfit for her. Tori is about three hundred years older than me—she's three hundred twenty-five years old.

Victoire has long auburn hair that's as straight as a pin, the same pale vampire skin as Tori and I with the addition of rosy red cheeks, and vibrant violet eyes flecked with silver. She wore a cream colored lace blouse with a ruffled collar, a silk burgundy vest, faded black skinny jeans, and light brown leather ankle-high boots. Her outfit was always like this—she was born in the nineteen thirties. She was beautiful. She was what supermodels envied, she could be the face for any makeup brand in the world. It could be that Aphrodite was her cousin, or it could be pure luck.

Sometimes you can barely tell a difference between us. Like when we got mad, our eyes would turn a bright shade of tomato red. Oh yeah, and we're all vampires.

They each held full duffel bags.

"You're staying?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes!" They answered in unison.

"Oh my gosh!" I squealed, tackle-hugging them. "It's a miracle! But let me warn you; I have a half-brother that I share a cabin with…"

"Is he cute?" Victoire asked in her high bell-like voice. She always seemed to be more prone to having emotions.

I shrugged. "Two things that would be wrong if I knew the answer to that, one; he's my half brother, two; I don't feel any emotions."

She smiled sheepishly. "Oops, I forgot. Sometimes it just slips my mind."

"What doesn't slip your mind?" Tori asked sarcastically. Victoire punched her on the shoulder. To a normal humani, it would have shattered their shoulder bone.

We chatted as we walked back to my cabin. I hadn't seen my friends for probably ten years. They had once babysat me, and had saved me multiple times from trouble, like when I had angered Mars Ultor. They had come to my rescue and probably saved my life.

Of course, Tori had to be the downer. Every person that she caught staring at her—or any of us—she'd immediately turn to them and flip them off. She had an odd talent for sensing when people were looking at her. It was her special talent, per se. She could even tell if someone was looking at a picture of her in China.

Nico sat in the cabin reading _Gothly Reading_ to himself, while _Never Shout Never!_ Music blared out of his iPod. He abruptly jolted up when we walked in, his eyes darting back and forth between the three of us.

"Um… Natalie, who are they?" he asked, gesturing to Tori and Victoire.

"My friends. This is Tori,"I said. She waved happily, but a mischievous glint stayed in her eyes. "And this is Victoire." She smiled and waved happily at him. Both of their smiles revealed sharp fangs.

Nico gasped. "They're vampires too?"

I nodded. "Yeah, they are. But they don't drink blood either, so don't worry."

He sighed in relief. "Good. I was worried that I was going to end up as a dead man. Oh, that reminds me; this was waiting here for you, Natalie." He picked up a lean raven black cat that had the oddest blood red eyes. A smug smile played on its lips.

_Meow!_

"Aww!" Tori, Victoire, and I squealed. I grabbed the cat from Nico and looked at the tag around its neck.

It read:

_To: Natalie_

_His name is Sebastian._

"What an adorable name, Sebastian!" I said. I stroked his back carefully. His delicate black fur was very soft, even softer then cashmere. But his paws… they weren't rough like normal cats paws. No, they were smooth like velvet.

"I love his eyes," Victoire breathed softly. "They're so different. I've never seen a cat with red eyes before."

"I know, they're abnormal. I wonder if cats can wear colored contacts," Tori wondered aloud.

I grinned. "Yeah, he's _my_ different cat. Nico, do you know who brought him?"

He shook his head slowly. "No… it was just sitting here—"

"Don't call Sebastian an _it_," I ordered.

"Okay," he agreed. "_He_ was just sitting here when I came in from breakfast."

"Weird…" Tori said. "I don't feel like this is right. It just feels wrong."

Sebastian glared at her. I scratched his nose happily. "No, there's nothing wrong with this. He's just a cat. Nothing to worry about!"

"If you say so. So where can we stay?"

"Chose any bunk you want. Except for mine and Nico's bunks. Those are claimed."

Tori took the bottom half of my bunk, and Victoire took the top half of the bunk next to mine.

"So what is my mom doing that's so important?" I asked quietly.

"Well the Flamels showed up just after we left, and they had a boy and a girl with them—twins," Tori said.

I facepalmed. "Oh my lord, they're going at that _again_? When will they ever stop trying to find these 'legendary twins'?"

"Who knows. Maybe this pair will be lucky and escape. After what happened to the last pair, I'll never be able to feel hopeful about twins again."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Nico asked.

"Stuff, Nico. Stuff."

In truth, we were talking about a pair of legendary twins that were once written would save the world. Nicholas and Perry Flamel had been at finding the legendary twins of the prophecy for a couple of centuries. All of them had silver and gold auras, but none of them had been pure. The last set of twins… I won't even try to explain it.

"Are they any better than the others?" I asked.

Victoire sighed. "They looked like the rest—silver and gold auras. The girl had the brightest silver aura I've ever seen with the warmest vanilla ice cream smell, and her brother had the only completely pure gold aura that I've seen in my life. His smelled of oranges. It was quite an interesting mixture, but neither of them had their powers awakened."

"Those poor kids won't even know what hit them." I scratched behind Sebastian's ear thoughtfully, and he purred happily, nuzzling his head against my chest. "I mean, it could even be my mom and Aoife. They just need to drop it already."

"Well you know Nick and Pernelle," Victoire said, her eyes momentarily flaring red and her British accent suddenly very prominent. "They stop at nothing to get their way."

Nico had a dumbfounded look on his face. "Should I be worried?"

I smiled half-heartedly. "No, Nico. It's not something you need to worry about. It won't affect you. Hopefully."

"Hopefully?"

"Well… you never know what one event does to the next. You just have to go with the flow."

He sniffled. "Yeah. The flow of death, maybe."

"Possibly."

"So Natalie," Tori interrupted. "Are you going to show us around camp or not?"

"Yeah, will you?" Victoire pleaded.

"Of course I will. What do you guys want to see first?"

"Um… I don't really care," Tori said.

"Yeah, can you just show us _something_?"

"Well…" I started. "I could show you the big house, or Chiron at the archery range, or Mr. D… nah, you don't want to see him. He's a big old grump."

"Wait, you mean like the Greek Dionysus? He owes me twenty bucks from a poker match a hundred years ago! Take me to see him," Tori demanded.

I smiled evilly. This was just what old Mr. D needed in his day. "Okay."

Tori flung open the door and stomped outside. Victoire and I followed quickly. There sat Chiron, a few satyrs, and Mr. D playing pinochle.

"_Dionysus!_" Tori screeched, her eyes flaring an especially dark red along with her pale hair turning the same hue of red.

He looked up slowly, and nearly jumped out of his skin. His blood-curling screech filled the crisp morning air, and caused everyone within a ninety-yard radius to jump up and look around. "Stay back!" He materialized a sleek black sword out of thin air and pointed it in our general direction.

"Natalie…" Tori growled.

"Fine," I sighed. I snapped my fingers and the sword disappeared.

"You owe me some money, Dionysus," Tori growled, stalking closer to him, her hand on the overly-sharp sword at her side.

"I don't have any on me!"

She smiled a smile that would have scared the Joker to death. "You know the rule; if you can't cough up the cash, then you owe me a service."

He gulped. "Yeah…"

Sebastian looped himself in between my ankles. "Dionysus, I suggest you pay her. She has an even worse temper than I myself do. And trust me, her torture methods could be compared to a dictator's." That was a lie—Tori wasn't nearly as good a warrior as I, but I wanted to scare him.

"Dionysus, what is going on?" Chiron asked. Worry was traced in his voice.

"N-nothing. Just a debt I need to pay off."

"And you _know_ what I did to my elder, right, Dionysus?"

He locked his jaw to keep from screeching. "You k-killed him, r-right?"

Chiron laughed. "Dionysus, gods can't be killed—"

"Oh yes, they can," Victoire interrupted. "And they're not called _gods_, that's just the pompous name they came up with when they tried to take control away from the dark elders. Like little Dionysus here, for example, is only a mortal who gained immortality from an elder and have to serve them. Who was your elder, Dionysus?"

"King T-Tutankhamen." Ah, that's right.

Tori sighed. "Look, Dionysus, traveling across the world can really wear one out. Can you just pay up so I can get on my way?"

He nodded his head rapidly and dug a twenty dollar bill out of his back pocket. "H-here. And may I ask what you're doing here?"

"Victoire and I will be staying for a while," she said with a smile. "A long, long while."

**Blegh, I'm not happy with this chapter but I'm glad I got the two OC's in that I wanted. Please tell me what you think, this is my longest chapter yet. :D**


	4. Chapter 4

"What? But… but they're not demigods! They can't just stay here!" Dionysus complained, fishing a twenty dollar bill out of his pocket.

I shrugged. "So? You're not a demigod, Chiron isn't a demigod, the nymphs aren't demigods, the dryads aren't demigods, must I go on?"

Tori accepted the twenty dollar bill from Dionysus and stuffed it into her pocket. "You're lucky that this century's fates have gone down. A hundred years ago, you would've owed me two hundred gold pieces."

Victoire looked at Chiron for a minute. "What?" Chiron asked shyly.

"I had a centaur for a boyfriend once. He didn't last long—he was really immature."

Chiron looked completely confused, like someone had told him the sky was pink, not blue. "Dionysus, who are these people?"

"Victoire here is my aunt," he said, pointing a chubby finger at Victoire. "And Tori here was an old gambling partner. Together we were known as Bonnie and Clyde—two of the greatest criminals of all time. It was a good time, until we came to plotting our own deaths, and then settling the disputes over money."

I turned to Tori. "You never told me that. Why?"

She shrugged. "I never found it important. After all, Bonnie and Clyde are over. It was fun for a while, but after so much stealing, you get bored."

Dionysus laughed lightly. "Yeah, good times."

Tori turned her burning glare to him. "Good times? For who, may I ask?"

"So I see that the joyous memories aren't shared."

"Never were, and never will be."

Chiron trotted closer. "But that would make you-"

"Old," Tori finished. "Let's just leave it at old for now."

"This is boring," Victoire complained. "Can we go see something else?"

"Like?" I asked.

"Like… um… whatever, just not this." Ah, typical Victoire.

"Okay, then. To the lake it is!"

"Ooh, we can make fun of those dryads! They're always fun to poke at; they react so strongly."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well the dryads here have weapons, so watch what you say."

A dark look entered Victoire's eyes. I had seen the look only once before, when she was extremely frustrated at someone. That person didn't live much longer. "No weapon can beat me—the impenetrable."

"Yeah? Then how'd you get that cut on your arm?" Tori asked slyly.

"I tripped!" she whined. "It wasn't a weapon, it was the ground! Really, really sharp ground…"

"So the ground can hurt you, but a weapon can't? Yeah, right." I turned on my heel and walked slowly towards the water, letting Tori and Victoire catch up to me.

"Dionysus hasn't changed one bit," Tori said quietly. Victoire and I could hear her clearly, but any humani that was walking behind us wouldn't have been able to.

"So how's it been?" Victoire asked me lightly. "One and a half days here, it must've stunk."

I laughed. "Stunk doesn't even begin to cover how it's been. I just want to go home…" I looked at Victoire pleadingly. "Therapist mode please."

She sighed dramatically, pulling a pair of wire-rimmed glasses out of her designer bag, slipping them onto her face. "Now, Natalie, what's the problem?"

I pulled my legs up tightly against my chest and buried my head in my knees. "Everything," I mumbled. "I'm sick of everything."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "More specific please."

"Well, I'm paranoid of staring, for one, and Dionysus… I really didn't want to see him again."

"What's wrong in between you and Dionysus?" Tori cut in.

"Well," I started, chewing on my lip, "I know that he thinks I killed the Norse god, Loki, and now he's either really pissed at me, or is afraid. I really wish he wasn't either."

Tori raised an eyebrow curiously. "Why does he think you killed Loki?"

"I don't know!" I whined, throwing my arms up in the air. "Maybe it was because I just happened to be in the same city as Loki when he was killed. I even _saw_ him get stabbed by some creepy creature…"

"Whoa," Victoire whispered. "That's harsh."

I sighed. "Yeah." I purged a little energy into my aura. I had started to notice that lately, my light aura had started to turn to some mysterious purple color. Maybe my internal energy was changing or something—but let me say, I didn't like the color change.

Victoire patted me on the back. "It'll get better."

"And remember," Tori added, "people only stare because you're the new kid. It'll go away soon enough, so don't give it too much thought."

"Thanks you guys," I said. "It really helps that I know that _some_ people still care about me…" I smiled half-heartedly to show that I was joking, but somewhere deep inside, I knew that I really didn't know who cared about me at all anymore.

I heard light footsteps in the wet grass behind us. I twisted my head around to see over my shoulder. Nico and Percy were standing behind us.

"Er, hey guys…" I greeted them quietly.

"Hey, do you guys want a tour?" Percy asked.

"Well _that's_ a way to get straight to the point…" Nico mumbled.

"Sure!" Tori said, springing up.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Victoire said slowly, taking her time to get up, and then brush herself off.

"What are we going to see?" Tori asked, blinking her wide doe eyes at Nico enthusiastically.

"Uh, whatever you want to…" Nico said, staring her right in the eyes.

Okay, I know Tori pretty well, and this is _not_ how she normally acted.

"…okay then…" I said, starting to get up slowly. "Can you give us a full tour of the camp? I didn't get to see much last night, and they haven't seen anything at all."

"Sure," Percy said. "Not like I can get out of this, anyways. Annabeth asked me to show you guys around."

"Gee, thanks," I said quietly.

Percy and Nico led us around the camp slowly, showing us each cabin (and there are more than fifty cabins, mind you, with all the new cabins for the minor gods and goddesses), the Big House, the Pegasus stables, the armory, the fighting arena, the climbing wall, and a bunch of other stuff. Nico narrated the tour as we went, adding little interesting facts about everything. They then decided that we'd get a sword-fighting lesson.

And it wasn't beginner-level, either.

By the end of the lesson (about two hours later) Tori, Victoire, and I were worn out. I collapsed on the couch wheezing in the Hades cabin, yanking out my inhaler and breathing in two puffs. "Too… much… exertion…" I wheezed out.

"You okay?" Percy asked.

"Asthma," I said shakily. "It hits me kinda hard…"

"Sorry, we wouldn't have given you the lesson had we known," Nico said, with a crooked grin.

Victoire tossed water bottles at Tori and I. "Hydrate."

"Kay," Tori and I sighed, gulping down water. Much unlike my mother, I _hated_ water. If I could, I'd normally get juice or soda. I didn't find the need to be so health conscious as my mother was.

The shadows in the Hades cabin suddenly grew darker, as though someone had filled each shadow with fright. Nico growled darkly.

"What's going on?" Percy asked cautiously.

"Clarisse," Nico grumbled before a heavy knocking sounded out.

"Hey, Nico, let me in," she barked through the heavy oak door. He chose to ignore Clarisse, so I dragged myself up to let her in.

"Hey, Clarisse." I said.

She ignored me. "Nico, Percy, Chiron's been looking for you two for a while. He sent me out to come find you guys. We're having a cabin-leader meeting." She dropped her voice to barely more than a whisper. "Rachel's gone missing."

-Ω-

Nico sat in front of me at the Hades table in the pavilion. Connor and Travis had taken Tori and Victoire to go see the Pegasus for a while.

"So what happened?" I asked anxiously, scanning him over. His face was even paler then before, which is quite a statement. He was approaching the color of snow. His eyes had dark circles now, as though he had skipped ten years of sleep.

"Rachel's been kidnapped," he said shortly. "There was a blood trail in the forest where Juniper last saw her. Juniper said that it was a huge monster—one that she's never seen before—and it just disappeared with her."

"Juniper?"

"Grover's girlfriend."

"Oh," I replied, even though I was still clueless.

"We're going to have to find her," he mumbled, running a shaky hand through his deep black hair.

"How many people are going to go out to find her?" I pressed.

"Chiron already sent out at least a dozen, and wants to get two dozen more out looking for her within the next three weeks." He sighed. "He wants me to leave tomorrow."

"Oh," I said quietly. Suddenly I had a thought. "Can you take me to the place where she was last seen?"

"Sure," he said. We ventured deep into the forest. Once we had been walking for a good ten minutes, we reached a spot of forest where trees had been ripped to pieces and the grass was a deep red—splattered with Rachel's blood. "Here we are."

I sniffed the air curiously, before getting down on all fours to closely inspect the ground. "What are you doing?" Nico asked.

"Shh," I said, wandering off to the left, pressing my face into the ground to get a good whiff of monster. The smell immediately clicked in my head.

"I know what took her," I said. "Or _who_ took her."


End file.
